Teens Love iPhone and Apple Watch, But Not Apple Music and Apple TV+

[Philip_S]

“The Apple Watch was the top watch brand, with Rolex and Casio coming in second and third, respectively.”

You know something is either wrong with teenagers these days or with the survey itself if more teenagers reported using Rolexes than Casios.

I’m not going to pay for the report, but my guess is that those Rolexes are gifts for significant birthdays, heirlooms, and so on (or fakes), and that if you lumped together all the Android-compatible Pebble-like watches and all the Fitbit clones they’d be 2 and 3 respectively. Miscellaneous cheap no-name watches for use in when you don’t want to risk damaging a smartwatch or phone might beat Rolexes too.

 

[Antoniosmalakia]

Teens will often be gifted an iPhone or Apple Watch to love, but will less likely (perhaps never) be given subscription services to love. lol

 

[Philip_S]

Or, you know, maybe genuinely people prefer it. Apple has sent me 17 months worth (so far) of free Apple Music trials. Every so often I get one via email, "don't you miss us?" with another 1, 2, or (rarely) 5 months. Each time I trial it, and come away wondering how anyone can tolerate just how bad it is.

While I don’t think there’s been a music player that combines all the best bits of Winamp 5, Amarok, classic iTunes (which is partially still present as the library view), and Apple Music, i prefer Apple Music to Spotify.

Most of the people I know who prefer Spotify (especially the iOS users) like their huge long playlists for background noise and some even like the algorithmically generated tracks, whereas I tend to put on whole albums and just use the “for you” suggestions to remind me of albums I haven’t listened to for a while.

 

[tipoo]

Replay is still a pale imitation of Spotify Wrapped with a tiny tiny fraction the social appeal and weird bad web view instead of native in app. Hope it's better next year.

 

[Pecka]

Apart from lossless I find Apple Music to be a subpar experience compared to Spotify. Search is dog slow, annoying delay before playing, sometimes jitter or even stops playing, doesn't resume after wake up from sleep, no zooming in of cover art.

 

[wanha]

Agree.

But you're not "falling" if you're not even trying:

Apple is fully content resting on its iPhone sales laurels and spending nowhere close to the amounts of marketing and r&d for Music as Spotify does.

Why spend hundreds of millions on trying to compete in music streaming when iPhone sales are soaring year after year and you only really care about the latter as there's nowhere near as much money to be made from music streaming as there is from smartphone sales?

Apple's iPhone sales, iCloud price gauging, Apple One bundles, and lack of full integration for third-party services and devices into Apple's ecosystem ensures a steady number of Apple Music users.

It's really quite simple and very lucrative.

All of what you say is true. Apple is milking the golden cow for all it's worth.

I just think they're playing with fire by willingly allowing teens to gravitate to other services and not even trying to get to stick with Apple services, as you put it.

Not only is music a huge part of culture, but also the reason marketers are always after the young audience is that after 30 (or whatever the exact number was), people's preferences are largely set and it becomes very difficult and expensive to get them to switch brands after that, which is why most markets don't even bother trying.

 

[wanha]

Replay is still a pale imitation of Spotify Wrapped with a tiny tiny fraction the social appeal and weird bad web view instead of native in app. Hope it's better next year.

Agree 100%, but wouldn't get my hopes up

 

[groove-agent]

I don't blame them. For some reason Apple struggles to complete with their services.

Apple gaming should be added to that list.

 

[VisceralRealist]

I'm still a teen, technically (I'm 19), and I don't see the appeal in any of the subscription services. I don't see the appeal in most of them. Just a way to watch your balance drain every month for something you're not getting your money's worth from. The way I use most TV subscription services is to temporarily subscribe and then cancel once I've watched the show I subscribed for. I could see doing that for TV+ if there was a show I had to see. But a long-term subscription won't be for me.

As for music, well, I'm an audiophile weirdo so I'm a Qobuz/Tidal guy rather than Spotify/Apple Music. But I could see getting into Apple Music if they overhaul the macOS app and bring Apple Music Classical to the Mac.

 

[aaronhead14]

Considering the fact that Apple TV+ basically only makes “mature” R-rated / TV-MA shows and movies, this is unsurprising.

They don’t make hardly anything for families and teens. They have some stuff for really young kids, but that’s it.

 

[rabidbadger]

I personally find the quality of shows on Apple TV+ to be higher on average than on other streaming services. But then I'm an old man.

Apple Music on the other hand is very disappointing. I wish they had bought Pandora for the patents back when it was a going concern.

 

[Herrpod]

Makes sense since Apple Music sucks.

 

[TheMountainLife]

Sounds like Spotify are deliberately locking you in by making it difficult to move to another service.

Nah, it doesn't feel that way. $10.99 is just a good deal I got during the Spotify + Hulu partnership. Apple Music however has replaced most of my owned library with .M4P files making it impossible to listen to my music unless the device is authorized and you can only have 5 at once or deauthorize all once a year. That's deliberately locking me in.

 

[EricNau]

I don't understand why people don't like Apple Music.

...But the experience is sometimes ruined when songs stop playing, when it has trouble connecting to the web, when I get server errors or when songs skip.

I think you answered your own question. 😄 A music app isn't good if it doesn't reliably play music.

 

[TheMountainLife]

I forgot to mention I love the visual...gifs? That play on most songs in Spotify. I don't think I've seen that on Apple Music.

 

[JippaLippa]

I think you answered your own question. 😄 A music app isn't good if it doesn't reliably play music.

Fair enough I guess.
I personally despise Spotify as a company, so even if their service would be perfect, it'd still be a nono for me.

 

[ThaGoochiestMane]

All of what you say is true. Apple is milking the golden cow for all it's worth.

I just think they're playing with fire by willingly allowing teens to gravitate to other services and not even trying to get to stick with Apple services, as you put it.

Not only is music a huge part of culture, but also the reason marketers are always after the young audience is that after 30 (or whatever the exact number was), people's preferences are largely set and it becomes very difficult and expensive to get them to switch brands after that, which is why most markets don't even bother trying.

If they don't allow teens (or any owners of their devices) to willingly gravitate to other services, they'll be in for an even bigger antitrust lawsuit.

It might be a lucrative market segment that they would be right to try to capitalize on, but not at the expense of the company's overall success or position.

 

[StanleyOmar]

Does anyone actually love Apple TV+?

It's better than at launch, by far, but it's the lightest platform of all. The content is stagnant.

I think most people who have TV+ also have another service, let it be cable or Netflix or Disney or HBO. And I think most people try to limit themselves to 1 subscription at a time.

So all in all, Apple TV+ is not a desirable service.

-

As for Apple Music, there's no free tier. I didn't have any money when I was a teenager and it was impossible to get a credit card before 18. I suspect this is why they go with Spotify by default. Spotify then becomes a trend amongst teenagers and then the trend is almost irreversible.

Apple TV+ is the streaming service I watch the most by far, though I'll say upfront that I don't live in the US, so maybe Netflix is some kind of unrivalled wonderland south of the border in a way that it simply can't be in Canada due to rights and distribution. But the combination of a far more limited number of shows/films and the particular type of programming Apple chooses to produce has made it far more appealing to me and I imagine others for those specific reasons.

Btw, I do also have Disney, and a package that includes HBO/Max/Starz and a pretty decent selection of films/programming. Still, Apple has surprisingly been my go-to when I actually have time to waste on TV.

 

[wanha]

If they don't allow teens (or any owners of their devices) to willingly gravitate to other services, they'll be in for an even bigger antitrust lawsuit.

It might be a lucrative market segment that they would be right to try to capitalize on, but not at the expense of the company's overall success or position.

let me rephrase, because you clearly misunderstood. When I wrote Apple shouldn't allow teens to just gravitate to other services, I meant they shouldn't let them go without a fight (i.e. by making sure their own services are as good as possible - hence my example of Spotify Wrapped).

I did not imply Apple should do anything nefarious. That would just be monumentally stupid.

 

[Richu]

spotify is slowly killing themselves by raising prices while moving more previously free features behind their paid tier. i see more moving over to apple music in the future.

Yeah! They should be more like apple, who’s known for their overall generous prices that never increase

 

[NT1440]

" causes "social stigma, exclusion, and blame [in teens]". Uhh, isn't that all of social media? Why don't we have the US DoJ doing something about that?

I find it ludicrous that “social stigma” has *any* consideration in an anti-trust lawsuit.

Insecure people being mean to each other is somehow an argument for legal action as it relates to anti-trust…since when? The DoJ can make their arguments based on concrete technical facts and business practices, but using this nebulous “the cool kids are mean to the people who aren’t cool because of the phone they use” denigrates the whole concept of what anti-trust laws are supposed to be doing.

 

[SR 7]

Yes, because Apple TV is frustrating to use and about $100 overpriced. Who the hell wants an Apple TV when you can get a better device, the Firestick for $40? I have said this for years. Apple's greed is causing all these declines. I needed a new Apple TV because of their BS older model restrictions and when I saw the pricing I ran and purchased 3 Firesticks and they are 10x better and user-friendly.

That isn't the only item that is overpriced. I need a new keyboard but why the heck would I spend $200 for a keyboard because it is space gray? So I went and got myself a different keyboard. It's a damn keyboard. How can you charge $125-200 for a keyboard that isn't anything special? Its a KEYBOARD nearly half the price of an iPad!

 

[djphat2000]

Seems like people use what they like best. One would think Apple controls the world. How could they if most people use Spotify for Music, other Streaming Services for "TV". Other smart watches to tell time. But, heavens forbid they all like an iPhone. Time to call the cops!!

 

[djphat2000]

Yes, because Apple TV is frustrating to use and about $100 overpriced. Who the hell wants an Apple TV when you can get a better device, the Firestick for $40? I have said this for years. Apple's greed is causing all these declines. I needed a new Apple TV because of their BS older model restrictions and when I saw the pricing I ran and purchased 3 Firesticks and they are 10x better and user-friendly.

I own 3 AppleTV's. I don't find them hard to use at all.

That isn't the only item that is overpriced. I need a new keyboard but why the heck would I spend $200 for a keyboard because it is space gray? So I went and got myself a different keyboard. It's a damn keyboard. How can you charge $125-200 for a keyboard that isn't anything special? Its a KEYBOARD nearly half the price of an iPad!

You can purchase any keyboard you like. If you're price conscious, you know there are other options.

 

[PsykX]

Netflix is some kind of unrivalled wonderland south of the border in a way that it simply can't be in the Canada due to rights and distribution.

Rights and distribution and also due to the fact that its French content is almost non-existent.
Even stuff that we all know has been translated in French, Netflix will only have the English audio track.